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prehistoric Quick reference
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation (3 ed.)
... Dating from the first appearance of life to when the earliest written historical records begin. Human prehistory dates from the appearance of the first modern humans. In North America prehistory is usually taken to refer any time before ad 1540...
palaeotempestology
palaeoenvironmentology
palaeoecology Quick reference
A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences (5 ed.)
...The application of ecological concepts to fossil and sedimentary evidence in order to study the interactions of the Earth’s surface, atmosphere , and biosphere in pre-historic and geologic...
Wegener, Alfred Lothar (1 November 1880) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Weather (3 ed.)
...of continental drift , which, many years after his death, was subsequently to form the basis for the modern theory of plate tectonics . As a meteorologist he published works on many subjects, including tornadoes , and collaborated with Köppen (his father-in-law) on prehistoric climates. His four expeditions to Greenland were undertaken primarily to study polar air masses...
palaeoseismology Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...Palaeoseismology is the study of prehistoric earthquakes using geological and geomorphological evidence. ‘Prehistoric’, in this context, is commonly taken to mean the past 500 000 years in contrast to the usual elastic use of this term. Palaeoseismology is of importance in assessing earthquake hazard, especially in regions where the time interval between damaging earthquakes is measured in thousands of years, and thus exceeds the length of our instrumental and historical records. The two principal methods of palaeoseismological investigation are...
Leakey, L. S. B. (1903–72) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...and wildlife. At the age of 16 he entered school in England and, later, St John's College, Cambridge. In 1923 he joined an expedition to Tanganyika and between 1926 and 1935 he led four highly successful expeditions to East Africa, studying ancient lake levels and prehistoric cultures. In 1937 he returned to Kenya to study the Kikuyu people, but on the outbreak of the Second World War he entered government service. In 1945 Leakey was appointed curator of the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi, making it eventually one of the finest museums on the...
Buckland, William (1784–1856) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...they contained, and the nature of flood and river deposits. As a churchman he contributed to the debate about the Noachian flood, without identifying it specifically in the superficial deposits he examined. He did, however, hold that there had been great inundations in prehistoric times which had spread the ‘diluvium’ far and wide. He was a plutonist and something of a catastrophist, since he believed that sudden great events had recently occurred to remove the fauna seen in the deposits we now know as of Pleistocene age. He was not opposed to Louis...
medieval mineralogy and figured stones Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...Clearly some of these objects were fossils, and to some were attached histories of their origin; devil's toe-nails, thunderbolts, and other fanciful names were applied to them. Some, such as the ‘thunder stones’ were, in fact, stone axes or other implements from prehistoric ages, and not uncommon in parts of Europe. The recognition of the true nature of such objects had to wait until the Renaissance, when scholars had access to, or made for themselves, collections of rocks, minerals, and fossils from many sources. D. L. Dineley Adams, F. D. ...
historical geology Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...continuous unchanging and smooth process. Historical geology views this process as one with many sudden unique or recurrent events, some of which may have triggered great geological, geographical, and palaeobiological changes. D. L. Dineley Berry, W. B. N. (1987) Growth of a prehistoric timescale (2nd edn). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Palo Alto, California. Gould, S. J. (1987) Time's arrow, time's cycle . Harvard University Press, Cambridge,...
history of the search for economic deposits Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...fuels. Man's need for an increasing range of them has risen dramatically during the twentieth century, but his earliest needs were possibly for rock types that gave sharp cutting tools. Natural glasses, flint, and other siliceous rocks were used throughout the stone ages, and prehistoric workshops and mining sites are known in many parts of the world. Native copper was probably the first metal to be fashioned into tools and weapons, as in the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia during the Bronze Age. Copper was in use in Egypt around 7000 bc , but gold and...
peatlands and bogs Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...Icelandic eruptions of known historical dates, and from prehistory, have been found in Irish and Scottish bogs, and can be used as synchronous time markers in the peat, linking the other proxy-records precisely in time. Data such as these, and the remarkable preservation of prehistoric human bodies in peat, show what potential there is for unravelling the past in the peat. Keith E. Barber Biodiversity and conservation , Vol. 2, No. 5, 1993; special issue, Peatlands and people. Chapman and Hall, London. Chambers, F. M. (ed.) (1993) Climate change and human...
quick clays Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...restoring frictional strength. Examination of aerial photographs in quick-clay areas of Canada and Norway reveals numerous flow-slide scars of greatly differing ages. As the St Lawrence Valley lowlands are subject to infrequent but large earthquakes, it is possible that many prehistoric flow slides were triggered by seismic shaking. Given the unusual behaviour of quick clays, a considerable amount of research has been conducted into their origin and geotechnical properties. All major quick-clay deposits accumulated in marine or brackish-water embayments close...
art and the Earth sciences Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...first episode was watched by an estimated 18.9 million people. Plans for a sequel were being made while showings of the first series were still in progress. The use of geological materials in art Geological materials, especially minerals and metals, have been used in art since Prehistoric times. Gold and silver have been widely used in many cultures in the production of art objects. Minerals and gemstones have similarly been used to adorn objects and people in many cultures for many thousands of years. The search for these materials has often gone hand in hand...
debris flows Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...systematically and consistently, nor can reliable data be obtained on frequency of inundation. As a general rule, the bottoms and mouths of small, steep ravines that originate in steep, hilly or mountainous terrain (especially volcanic areas), or in areas of historic and prehistoric debris flows, should be considered as potential debris flow areas and avoided. It is generally believed that erosion by debris flows can be reduced by strict controls of land use, grading, and drainage. On artificial slopes, this could include limiting the height of slopes,...
tsunamis Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...tsunamis for Hawaii extends only to 1850 ad . Before this date, the return frequency of tsunamis is not known, since no historical record exists, yet many tsunamis are likely to have occurred. In recent years, it has proved possible to investigate the occurrence of prehistoric tsunamis for individual areas because many ‘palaeotsunamis’ have been associated with the deposition of sediment in coastal areas subject to flooding. In this way it has been possible to calculate the number of tsunamis that have taken place in particular areas over timescales...
earthquake hazards and prediction Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...of geophysics and, most importantly, geology and geomorphology. Possibly the most important breakthrough in our understanding of earthquake processes has been due to the relatively new field of palaeoseismology. Palaeoseismic studies consist of geological investigations of prehistoric earthquakes through evaluation of their impacts on the environment, such as surface faulting, tsunami deposits, liquefaction features, and buried marshes. The assessment of specific earthquake hazards has involved seismologists, geologists, and earthquake engineers. Strong...
karst Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Earth
...away as invisible solute load in a single operation. Little all no insoluble material accumulates to blanket the rock surface and to require mass-movement processes to move it downslope, as is the case with most other rock-types. Humans have settled in karst regions since prehistoric times, apparently often in preference to other apparently more attractive areas. The barren terrain, patchy soils and vegetation, and the difficulties encountered in obtaining reliable supplies of surface water have not prevented the creation of high civilizations, such as...
petroglyph Quick reference
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation (3 ed.)
...A prehistoric carving or drawing on a natural rock...
palaeo‐ Quick reference
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation (3 ed.)
...A prefix meaning old or ancient, particularly prehistoric . Spelled paleo in North...
